MURFREESBORO — Although Glenda Taylor didn’t know it, her heart was a ticking time bomb.

“The doctor told my son if I’d had a heart attack, I wouldn’t have made it,” said 59-year-old Taylor, who underwent bypass surgery at Thanksgiving last year.

She still gets chills when she thinks about it.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, she underwent bypass surgery to repair arteries. One was 60 percent blocked, but the other was at 90 percent.

Signs of problems started about a month beforehand when she attended a wedding. Out of the blue, she became breathless as she walked up a slight incline. “I had to stop four or five times. My chest was killing me,” she recalled.

The Monday after the weekend wedding, Taylor went to the physician. The pains subsided by then, and her health was fine otherwise. But, to be safe, her doctor made Taylor an appointment with a cardiologist.

Breathlessness returned soon after. As she was doing some light housework around the house, she had to keep sitting down to rest. On Monday morning as she headed into work, her chest pains returned she walked up steps to her office at Haynes Brothers Lumber Co. in Murfreesboro.

Her sister, Laura Hinote, was working at the office with her. Concern for her sister took over the workday duties.

An electrocardiogram or EKG at the ER showed “everything came back perfect,” Taylor said. An electrocardiogram is a test that checks for problems with the electrical activity of the heart. The test is often done when there is unexplained chest pain, which could be the result of a variety of things.

“They did blood work, and it showed I was not having a heart attack,” Taylor said.

But local cardiologist Dr. Britt Mioton admitted Taylor, put her on a heart monitor and set her up for an arteriogram the next morning at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. The next morning’s arteriogram showed the blockages in her main artery.

Mioton sent her to Saint Thomas West Hospital for surgery, which was just days away from her original cardiologist appointment.

“He was able to do a bypass and able to use an artery in my chest, and he didn’t have to stop my heart,” Taylor said. “I didn’t have a heart attack, so my heart wasn’t damaged.”

Taylor said she never realized signs of her heart issues were creeping up. The chest pain and breathlessness were concerns, but she had no idea that night sweats, which she experienced over the summer prior to her heart surgery in November, was another tell-tale sign.

According to the American Heart Association, other symptoms for women can include lightheadedness, nausea, pain or discomfort in one or both arms, and pain in the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

Risk factors include inactivity, smoking, diabetes, excess weight and even genetics, according to the AHA. Learn more about risks and signs at heart.org.

“My father died 21 years ago of a heart attack. He was 69,” she said — just 10 years older than she is now. “I think that’s young.”

Stress can also play a major part in putting men and women at risk for heart disease, according to the AHA. Taylor was definitely under stress while she and her sister cared for their mother, who was in a nursing home.

“For six year’s I’d been dealing with the stress of watching her pass a little bit every day. … My sister and I rotated every other night (visiting their mother in the evenings at AdamsPlace),” Taylor recalled as she wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. “July 21 of this year, she passed away 21 years to the day my dad passed away.”

Taylor was unable to be around her mother, who was sick with a virus, at Christmastime last year. She still grieves that, although the family got together at Easter to celebrate the previous year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

While Taylor is still grieving the loss of her mother, she remains steadfast in taking care of herself and her heart.

“I’m exercising three to four times a week, walking on the treadmill. I went through the 13-week rehab program at Saint Thomas Rutherford. And I’m continuing — I know I have to exercise the rest of my life — and I know I need to lose a little more weight,” Taylor said. “But I’m just thankful to be here.”

Contact Nancy De Gennaro at 615-278-5148 or degennaro@dnj.com, or follow her on Twitter @DNJMama